Elastohydrodynamic machine elements are mechanical devices that operate with a thin film of fluid between nominally smooth, rolling-sliding, elastically-deformed, non-conforming surfaces in mutual contact. Fluids in the elastohydrodynamic contact typically behave not as a viscous fluid, but as an elastic-plastic solid with a yield or shear strength to the normal rolling-shearing motion. Shearing within the contact only occurs when the two surfaces in contact have a differential in their relative speeds which can be caused simply by the geometry of the contact surfaces and their relative motion in the natural operation of machine elements.
The efficiency of these machine elements rely in large part upon the high-stress shear strength of the fluid used to lubricate the surfaces in these high-stress, elastically-deformed, non-conforming contacts. The shear strength properties of the fluid under the contact operational conditions can substantially influence their efficiency depending upon the degree of sliding motion between the mating surfaces under elastohydrodynamic conditions of lubrication. Thus, fluids with low elastohydrodynamic shear strength enable better efficiency from lower fluid shearing losses in the rolling-sliding or pure sliding motion in these contacts.